Glavas Launches War Crimes Defence

A Croatian member of parliament launched a thundering defence at his war crimes trial this week, telling the court the charges were fabrications and the witnesses were liars.



Branimir Glavas is charged with ordering the murder of Serb civilians in a garage at his headquarters in the town of Osijek in 1991, and on the bank of the Drava river. Both investigations have been united into a single indictment.



Glavas, perhaps the most powerful politician in the Eastern Slavonia region, says the charges were invented by his former political allies in the HDZ, a party he helped found and which ruled Croatia throughout the 1990s, but which he was thrown out of two years ago.



"If it is a war crime to lead the defence of one’s city and homeland, then I accept the label and am a war criminal,” said Glavas.



“I would do it again so the state attorney’s office could ask for not 20 but 40 years in prison for me.”



Glavas is the first Croatian politician to lose his parliamentary immunity because of war crimes charges. He appeared every day in court in the national costume of Eastern Slavonia, visibly thin because of a hunger strike, which the judge said had lasted since November 8.



The prosecution case depends on the testimony of Krunoslav Fehir, who was a member of the unit Glavas commanded and says he personally witnessed Glavas ordering the murders. Another key witness is journalist Drago Hedl, who first wrote about the killing of Serb civilians in Osijek. Glavas dismissed them both as liars, adding that Hedl was a psychopath.



Fehir was a “totally irrelevant character during the war”, said Glavas, blaming lawyer Ante Nobilo for telling him what to say.



“He briefed him and told him to change his testimony. Knowing his IQ, I know that this was not the result of his own brain,” said the defendant.



Glavas further tried to discredit Fehir by saying that he had forbidden him to join the traffic police “because he only had a high-school diploma, which he probably bought somewhere”.



Glavas said the main leader of Osijek during the war was Vladimir Seks, head of the regional crisis staff and a former political ally. He said nothing happened in Osijek without Seks’ permission.



“I am not passing on responsibility, I am just talking about how things were at the time,” said Glavas.



“It is obvious to everybody that I was not the commander of any formation, so I could not have done what I am charged with.”



He repeated that his arrest and the charges filed against him were made for political reasons, inspired by the former Osijek police chief Vladimir Faber. He speculated that the case was intended to punish him for standing against his former HDZ allies in local elections.



Glavas was recently re-elected to parliament, and he must by law be present at the formation of parliament this month. Therefore, he may well be freed for the swearing-in ceremony, and may regain his parliamentary immunity.



On December 5, the Zagreb County Court refused a defence request that Glavas be released from custody.



“The court will reconsider Glavas’ release from custody when he becomes a member of parliament,” said Judge Zeljko Horvatovic.



Besides Glavas, in the dock are Ivica Krnjak, Gordana Getos-Magdic, Mirko Sivic, Dino Kontic, Tihomir Valentic and Zdravko Dragic.



After Glavas finished his statement, the hearings in the case of second defendant Ivica Krnjak started.



Goran Jungvirth is an IWPR reporter in Zagreb.